Doubt not of your merit, O earthly kings! because these gifts by others have been made, for endless merit awaits on him that maintains, rather than on him who confers, the same. The donor of land rejoices in heaven for a period of sixty thousand years; but their resumers and their advisers, too, dwell in the regions of hell for an equal space of years. Gold is the first offspring of Fire; Earth is the favourite of Vishnu and cows are the progeny of the Sun; therefore, whoever makes donations of gold, cows, and lands, these three kinds of donors do no more return on earth. Their fathers exult, and grandfathers laud (them), when their land-giving posterity thus bring about their redemption. Whoever receives a gift of land, and whoso makes a gift of it, both of them for their pious deeds ever ascend the heaven. The resumer of land is never absolved, though he should consecrate thousands of tanks, perform hundreds of Vájapeya sacrifices, and bestow ten millions of cows in charity. Whoever with an evil heart, dispossesses another or causes one to do such an act, being beset by darkness, he becomes fast entangled in the noose of Varuna, and degenerates into prostrate animals. Plate III. Whoso resumes land, whether of his own giving, or given by others, becomes a worm of the dirt, and rots there with his forefathers. The sun, Varuna, Vishņu, Brahma, the moon, fire, and the glorious Çiva, all bless the giver of land. This common bridge of the piety of kings should always be supported by you. This is what Rámachandra most expects of all future sovereigns of the earth. Reflecting on the transitoriness of human life and fortune, which is like a drop of water on the leaves of a lotus, and knowing that "this world is a fleeting show", let none obliterate the acts of others. This Copper-plate document is written, on the eighth day of the moonlit-fortnight of Asháḍha, in the sixth year of the victorious reign of the most venerable, great ruler of rulers and sovereign-lord, the illustrious Janamejaya Deva, which to write in figure is Samvat 6 Asháḍha, Çudi, by Koi Ghosha, son of Vallabha Ghosha of the Kayastha caste, in the service of the son of Gri Malládhara Datta, the Chief Minister of Peace and War. There reigns the illustrious king of the Lunar race Janamejaya by name, who in purity and splendour resembles the carbuncle gem, in the family of the gemming lords of the earth. Whose valour and bounty are boundless as the ocean, and whose lawful gifts have made his name more glorious. He resembles the Lord of gods in saving the earth when in difficulties, and he is celebrated as a mighty vanquisher of the hosts of his enemies. JOURNAL OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. Part I. HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. No. III.-1877. Notice of a pre-historic Burial Place with Cruciform Monoliths, near Mungapet in the Nizám's Dominions.-By WILLIAM KING, Depy. Supdt., Geol. Sur. of India. (With two Plates.) About eight miles W. S. W. of Mungapet (Paluncha Taluq), on the right bank of the Godávarí, and on the road to Hanamconda, I passed over the strange place of sepulture described in this paper. It is in the midst of, and overgrown with, forest and scrub jungle, and is quite out of the ordinary route of European travellers; but as the tombs have been opened and there are signs of excavation, apparently of other hands than those of despoilers, it is possible that this spot has been visited and described by some previous observer. The only notice I can find having reference to like places in the neighbouring country is that of Colonel C. L. R. Glasfurd (Report of the "Upper Godavery District, 1868,") who says: "But scattered here and there in the forests, and on the sides of hills, are found the remains of a race before whose antiquity even the ancient Hindu dynasties of the Peninsula of India must probably give way. I allude to the megalithic monuments of Indo-Scythic sepulture, consisting of cromlechs, kistvaens and cairns, which have been found in four of the six taluqs of this district." This account answers generally for the locality under description, except for the presence of some stone crosses, which in my experience of such burial-places in Southern India, are quite unique. Other ruder and perhaps more ancient remains (commonly A A called Korumbar rings), in some respects similar to these, are frequent over parts of the Madras Presidency; but here in addition to the presence of large crosses, the tombs are all built of worked stones, and furnished with coffin-like cavities in place of the usual urns or earthenware chatties. The place itself is called, by the people around, Rákshasgudium or 'the village of demons', whom they describe in the usual way as having been as tall as trees, unclothed, long-haired, and of a time beyond the ken of man. Situated close to the present village of Kaperlaguru, it consists of an assemblage of kists or huge stone boxes for the reception of the dead, (and, if the size of some of these be taken into consideration, of very honoured dead too). The numbers of inferior people who must have been employed to quarry, dress, and carry the stones, were not buried in this place; it was the necropolis evidently of the rulers, not necessarily the heroes, of the country, for many of the kists contain two or more receptacles of different sizes as for families. The ground occupied is about half a square mile in extent, but it is difficult to be exact as to the area or even as to the number of tombs owing to the thick forest growth, and there were only a few hours at my disposal for searching the place. There are, however, about 150 tombs scattered irregularly along the crest and western slope of a low sandstone ridge, (lying mainly in a long W. N. W.-E. S. E. group) which is rather thickly crowded with kists near the northern end, where the high road crosses the ridge. In the more crowded portion of this ancient cemetery are four large cruciform monoliths, one lying flat on the ground at the extreme northern end of the place, and three a few yards south of the road, one of which is perfect and standing in a nearly upright position. The crosses do not seem in their position to bear any very particular relation to the tombs near them, and are too large, supposing they are not in their original sites, to have been moved far from their first position. The northern-most cross is not lying near any kist, but the upright one and another (broken and dug down to its base) are placed close to two pairs of large tombs, though their position is not strikingly associated with either of these.* The fourth monolith is lying on the ground some fifty yards further south near a tomb. The appended sketches (Plates XI and XII, figs. 1, 2) will show the style of these singular monoliths, which I think may be termed crosses, though they differ in many respects from all ornaments or sculptures of this class, while they are I consider of much more ancient date than the type from which nearly all crosses are derived. but The two crosses in the middle ground are facing about E.-W., not exactly; that is, the proper face may be to the sun or the reverse, for *(See Plate XII, Fig. 6.) W. King del. Burial Places with Cruciform Monoliths, near Mungapet J. Schaumburg bith: |
